PS Audio PowerBase

PS Audio releases the PowerBase

November 27, 2012

PS Audio Inc, a Boulder Colorado based Specialty audio manufacturer for over 40 years, announced the release of the PerfectWave PowerBase, a new product concept combining both an isolation base and a power conditioner together in one component level product.

The need for both vibration control and clean power has been well established over many years yet, until the introduction of the PowerBase concept, no single engineered solution has effectively addressed both for high end audio equipment.

Isolation

The primary goal of the isolation base function is to reduce the effects of microphonics, the tendency of equipment to act like a microphone and re-amplify a delayed "ghost image" of what’s playing on the loudspeaker.

Traditional isolation products such as cones, spikes, platforms and discs are effective only within a relatively narrow range and rely primarily on either reduced contact area or diffusion of mechanical energy to reduce the effects of microphonics.

The PowerBase takes a different approach by engineering a holistic system that includes both vibration dissipation and masking.

Vibration dissipation

The key to effective mechanical isolation is energy diffusion over a broad spectrum. The PowerBase achieves this ideal using two subsystems tuned apart by a factor of ten.

The first subsystem relies on high durometer Sorbothane feet attached to a steel chassis, tuned to 30Hz, forming the first level of energy dissipation in the system.

Mounted inside the base chassis is the second subsystem, tuned to 3Hz, formed from low durometer Sorbothane feet supporting a massive 20 pound 1/4″ steel floating platform the equipment sits on.

The combination of a soft suspension high-mass platform coupled with a stiff suspension low-mass body form a broad spectrum mechanical energy dissipation system that is effective at reducing induced surface vibrations from the loudspeaker pair.

Masking

The PowerBase can dissipate a broad spectrum of energy sent through solid surfaces but equipment is still exposed to airborne vibrations, a problem the PowerBase addresses by masking techniques similar to dither.

Masking is a simple system of adding back randomized noise to the signal in much the same way room diffusors work. The system is engineered to couple the diffused mechanical energy of the platform back into equipment helping mask any airborne vibrations picked up by the stereo system.

One-way gate filtering

Integral to the PowerBase design is a low loss power filter that reduces both differential and common mode noise in the home's AC supply as well a those generated inside the equipment powered by the product.

Noise reduction for both differential as well as common mode is >40dB starting at 100kHz and applies equally to both incoming and outgoing power line noise.

Specifications

The PowerBase measures: 17" wide, 14" deep, 2.5" tall and weighs 25 pounds.

Voltage acceptance: 90VAC to 280VAC 50/60Hz maximum 2000 watts.

Suggested retail: $995

Shipping: January 1, 2013

The PowerBase is engineered and built in Boulder Colorado